Looking for A Comapnion
by Cjjansen95
Summary: The story tells of young Stannis, a 25 year-old father living in Markarth with his daughter Sofie, and his adventures as he searches for a place to call Home. Will follow Companion questline (modded) the main storyline (with DB) and finish off with Dawnguard. Eventual DB/Serana. Some DB/Aela.
1. Chapter 1

Prelude

It's happened. Finally. Today, I finally managed to secure the deed to Vindrel Hall, no more debts to the Silver-Bloods. Finally Stannis Mountainborn is truly his own free man. Sofie was ecstatic when I told her. She's still too young to truly understand the politics of money and debts, but she does realize that I don't have to work in Cidna mine any longer, meaning I will no longer have to come home every day scarred and smelling like Orc. I still don't have enough to start my own smithing shop, the house left me with less than 100 septims.

No matter. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I no longer have to sleep with one eye open in fear of a repossession. As Father would have said," it's unbecoming of a true nord to fear for a game of politics." Tomorrow morning, I'm going to go see about working in Kolsgeger Mine, one of the few not owned by Thonar. I think it's because he doesn't want to be a Silverblood owning a gold mine. I'll need the gold if I'm to eventually leave this Forsaken city. Land owner or not, Markarth is still no place to be raising an eight year-old. I mean on the way home last night I was asked by a VIGILANT about Daedra worship going on inside the old abandoned house. What fool would worship the daedra in a city where a Thalmor Justiciar has taken up residence.

On that note, I think they have some sort of psychic powers as they seem to know I'm a Talos worshipper. Sofie called me out on it, saying that it's me giving away hints when I walk by. She's probably right, that girl is too smart for her own good. I think she may even be smarter than me; not that being smarter than me is hard, just that she's only seen eight winters so far and thus I should be smarter, well smarter than her. Not that I'm dumb, I'm actually rather well read, I'm just not very street-smart.

A shining example of this being that Sofie noticed that the Old Thane, Thongvar Silver-Blood, has been struck of his title of Thane of The Reach. She honestly thinks that I should try and get the position. Me? A Thane? NEVER! I'm a wimp, not a hero, not influential, not even a warrior. All I can do is work metal. She's begged me to at least try. I've never even set foot into Undertone, and she wants me to just waltz up to the Jarl and ask to be a Thane. She wore me down though, and I promised her that I'd try and do it after I finished shopping for a job tomorrow. I'm going to try Arnleif and Sons first, maybe I could be a simple laborer. I could do that. At least until a new mining position opened up, my fellow miner said a spot in the mine outside of town, where he works, will be open soon. I really hope so.

It appears as if my bedside candle is burning out. Goodnight Journal.

Yours truly,

Stannis


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.

'Of course, she was right,' thought Stannis. He had just finished talking to the Jarl, as he had promised his daughter, and it turns out that anyone could become Thane, so long as they are known throughout the hold, meaning I have to assist at least 5 people with huge favors, or work for people. As he walked down the steps from Understone, Stannis decided that it would be best if he started some new work.

He started to head down to the main gates, feeling the cool breeze come down from the mountains. Looking up, he could see some darker clouds rolling in from the east; however, they seemed to be too far away to matter. As he turned the corner he could see the marketplace, the town drunk leaning against the tavern, Sofie's friend bugging her parents, his coworker, Weylin, eyeing an Imperial woman who was unfamiliar to Stannis. No matter, Weylin always was suspicious of Imperials. He didn't even talk to Stannis the first two months he lived here, and he was only half-Imperial.

"Hello Weylin," greeted Stannis to his Breton friend.

"Hmmm," Weylin _greeted _back, never taking his eyes off of the girl. Stannis looked a bit closer at her, seeing that though pretty, she looked a bit too old for Stannis' taste. He couldn't fault Weylin for his staring though; he was getting up in the years and a girl her age would seem attractive to him. Either that or he was just waiting for her to start praising the Thalmor or something like that. He would have to join Weylin in killing her if that was the case. Stannis is a patient and tolerable man, but he cannot stand those who support the Thalmor.

"Well, enjoy the day, I'm off to find a new job," said Stannis.

"You know, I've heard through the grapevine that there may be some openings at Kolskeger," stated Weylin to Stannis as he started walking away, never taking his eyes off of the girl.

"OH WOW, that'd be great," exclaimed Stannis, "I mean we work at Cidna, my experience with silver ore should translate to gold. They are both precious metals, afterall."

"Hmm? Oh yeah. If you'll excuse me, I have something that needs my attention," Weylin stated, highly unfocused as the girl entered the tavern, narrowly avoiding a smack to the bottom by the drunk. As he finished speaking, Weylin followed her, ending the conversation. Stannis shrugged his shoulders, and walked out of the city.

Well, Weylin was right. There was definitely some open positions available. All of them, in fact, and it would be a dream-come-true, if not for the fact the previous occupiers of the positions were all killed by the damned Forsworn!

As soon as Stannis walked outside, he could hear a troubled conversation down at the Left-Hand iron mine. His curiosity getting the better of him, he walked down to it and imagine his surprise when he overhears that Ponsy and his right-hand orc were the only survivors of a forsworn raid on the mine. After waiting for Ponsy to be finished talking to Skeggy, the owner of Left-hand, Stannis walked up to Skeggy, and asked about the gold mine.

"Forsworn! The damned reachmen came in overnight and killed all the miners. Damn cowards. Only Ponsy and the orc made it out alive."

"What? When did this happen? Have you gone to the guards about this?" Stannis asked.

"About two hours ago, and of course we have," Skeggy said in his very rough voice, "They couldn't send any men on account of the Jarl needing to send some men down to Helgen for some military activity going on. With that, the need for his private guards, the patrols, and the soldiers he's already needed to send for the main war effort, there's apparently no need to send guards into a dangerous situation in order to take back a mine. But you know, I think it's because the mine wasn't owned by the Silver-Bloods, and they have the guard paid off," ranted Skeggy.

"Huhh, Damn! I was looking to get a job working the mine. I guess it's back to Cidna then."

"Well, if you're willing to work, I can pay you for any iron ore you dig up. I'm sure working for me is better than working Thonar and his mercenaries," Skeggy offered. It wasn't the first time he offered, as iron mines were the most abundantly filled, ergo more workers needed. However, he is probably right and having him as a boss would be better than still working for Thonar. Giving the guards some time to find it in them to free the gold mine could also be done.

"Alright, It's a deal. I'll start tomorrow," said the downtrodden Stannis. Skeggy nodded and started to walk back to Left-Hand, as Stannis started to head back into the city, the cold wind only adding to his melancholy feelings. The cool wind blew through his nordic hair when he reached the door, and an odd thought popped into his head. If the Forsworn had only just attacked, how in Oblivion did Weylin know about an opening? That and the guards, who normally make a sport out of killing Forsworn, not doing anything about them is all very odd. Something suspicious is going on, and he intends to find out.

If something was going on, it wasn't important or pressing enough to stop him from working in Left-Hand. The day after his suspicions started, he started working there and almost right off the bat, it was awful. The air was hot, the miners were hotheads, and Skeggy has a temper to rival that of Mehrunes Dagon. If one should so much as rest for a minute, Skeggy would chew his ear off and threaten to fire him or her. On the bright side, Skeggy may be mean but he is also quite dumb. He actually is paying triple value for the iron ore we dig up. He is either a complete amateur at running a mine or he has a really dumb buyer as well. It doesn't matter, Stannis was making money and that was what was important.

For ten days, Stannis' routine was the same. Wake up, make Sofie her breakfast, eat his own, run a whetstone across his pickaxe, head to Left-Hand, work until 1, eat lunch, work until 8 and, finally, go home to Sofie. Nothing seemed different between the days, aside from a vigilant asking about the old abandoned house. He believes there is Daedra worship in the house, but that was just a goose chase. No one ever goes into that house. Oh well, not his problem.

Stannis started his trip to Left-Hand for his eleventh day at work, the day starting like any other. He made it to the mine and went back to where he had stopped before. Already he could feel a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead and could smell the dust coming from the mining, burning his nostrils. All day he worked at that spot, going further and further into the mine, deepening the tunnel, in hopes of discovering some more ore.

He worked, skipping lunch, until he started hearing calls from Skeggy, looking for his find from the day. Even then, Stannis worked. He couldn't take the life of a miner any longer. Working for Thonar had been necessary, but this work was his choice, and he hated that he had degraded himself to mining iron. His father didn't even let himself get stuck mining iron. Stannis kept mining though, the sounds of his axe drowning out Skeggy, each swing helping to release all his anger at what he's done with his life. His body had told him to stop a while ago, but Stannis kept mining.

It was 4 hours after closing. Everyone, including Skeggy, had gone home a while ago, and yet Stannis was still looking for some kind of sign that he should stop. Why should he, anyway? It didn't matter anymore. His life had become a schedule. Paying off Vindrel was supposed to make his life better, easier, more exciting. It didn't though. His life was a joke now. He was going to keep working, work until his body gave out, and who would care? He didn't have any real friends, his own boss didn't even care enough to make sure he found him before leaving. This wasn't the first time he had had these thoughts either. They happened more often then he'd like, and were becoming more frequent.

_**Chink**_

The first time was right after Anna. Sofie had been born not two days prior, and Anna wasn't happy. The midwife, a priestess of Mara, said that depression was common among new mothers, especially ones who had not seen their 18th winter, which neither she nor he had. If only she was simply depressed. The truth is Anna hated Stannis and Sofie for what they had done to her, and left in the middle of the night. That morning was the first time Stannis had truly felt alone. Then the only reason for him to go on was the reason he didn't have Anna, Sofie. Her existence was more valuable to Stannis than his own, so he worked to keep her and give her a great childhood.

_**Chink**_

Stannis knew that he always had to go on, for Sofie's sake. He loved her to much to abandon her, as everyone had done to him, and so he did go on. He had to.

_**Chink**_

He had to keep going. It was the only thought that went through Stannis' mind as he dug further and further into the mountain, the air getting thicker and thicker as he worked.

_**Chink **_**'**_keep going'_

Stannis had lost all light hours ago, and was only able to continue by following the sound of metal hitting stone. So imagine his surprise when his axe hit nothing. Feeling around he realized that there was a hole in front of him. Upon further inspection, he realized it was an old tunnel, dug out centuries ago. '_Keep going,'_ he thought. And so he did, he climbed into the tunnel, feeling the texture of the man dug stone around him. He crawled for a while, having lost track of time, but not forever, eventually he reached something blocking his way. Felling it, he realized it was some kind of metal bar. He ran a gloveless finger along it, examining it's texture, and it was a texture he knew all too well. Silver.

"What in Oblivion is this doing here?" he pondered and upon this utterance of the daedric planes, he saw what was blocking him. A silver sword, help in the hands of a petrified corpse, glowing red from a hole in the right side of its chest, where a daedric heart still pounded.

_**Author's Note**_

**Hey everyone, if you suffered through this long enough to read this bless your heart. My original draft of this was absolute garbage, as I realized that it had absolutely no characterization, imagery, or any writing technique I've learned over the past four years. This is my first serious attempt at writing and I had to play around with this chapter to learn how I'm going to write this story. So if you've barred with me through it, again may the divines smile upon you. **

**Oh and for those of you wondering, the actual adventures of Stannis will begin next chapter, and I will write those as quickly as I can, and every like review or even criticism will help me out.**

**Thanks**


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